The Great Commandment

As is still the case, Jesus’s enemies often asked him difficult questions, not because they wanted to learn, but because they were trying to be clever.

One day a Pharisee asked him, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?” (Matthew 22:36)

Without hesitation the Lord Jesus answered: ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment.  (Matthew 22:37–38)

That answer undoubtedly satisfied the religious hypocrites, for they often justified their neglectful attitude towards others by self-righteously claiming they were prioritising their service for God.

However the Lord Jesus continued, “And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 22:39–40)

In this the Lord Jesus showed how perfect God and His Law is, and how sinful we are. There is no tension between different aspects of God’s law, and keeping one is no excuse for breaking another.

The perfect harmony of God’s holiness and his love were demonstrated at the Cross, when the Lord Jesus offered Himself as a perfect sacrifice to God. In this He perfect fulfilled the requirement to love God with all His being. But, dying as He did for our sins, He also perfectly fulfilled the requirement to love his neighbour as Himself.

You and I have hopelessly failed to love God and our neighbours. We have fallen short of God’s standard and stand condemned before Him.

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8

Trust Jesus today and be saved for eternity.